July 31
- 30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
- 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781).
- 904 – Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city.
- 1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.
- 1201 – Attempted usurpation of John Komnenos the Fat.
- 1423 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant – the French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
- 1451 – Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
- 1492 – The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
- 1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
- 1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
- 1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654-1667): the Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
- 1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Moghul emperor of India.
- 1667 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Treaty of Breda ends the conflict.
- 1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
- 1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
- 1777 – The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States."
- 1790 – The very first U.S. patent is issued: to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
- 1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
- 1865 – The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.
- 1913 – The Balkan States signs an armistice at Bucharest.
- 1919 – German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution, which comes into force on August 14.
- 1930 – The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
- 1931 – New York City experimental television station W2XAO (now known as WCBS) begins broadcasts.
- 1932 – The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
- 1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
- 1938 – Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.
- 1940 – A doodlebug train in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio collides with a multi-car freight train heading in the opposite direction, killing 43 people.
- 1941 – Holocaust: under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."
- 1945 – Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
- 1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
- 1954 – First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
- 1961 – At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain.
- 1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
- 1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
- 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
- 1972 – Operation Motorman: British troops move into the no-go areas of Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland. End of Free Derry.
- 1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
- 1987 – A rare, class F4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
- 1988 – 32 people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Malaysia.
- 1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.
- 1991 – The Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania. Soviet OMON attacks Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai, killing 7 officers and severely wounding one other.
- 1992 – Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
- 1992 – Georgia joins the United Nations.
- 1999 – Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector – NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
- 2002 – Hebrew University of Jerusalem is attacked when a bomb explodes in a cafeteria, killing 9.
- 2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro.
- 2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
July 30
- 762 – Baghdad is founded by caliph Al-Mansur.
- 1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: a crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council.
- 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
- 1608 – At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
- 1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.
- 1629 – An earthquake in Naples, Italy, kills about 10,000 people.
- 1656 – Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
- 1729 – Foundation of Baltimore, Maryland.
- 1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.
- 1756 – In Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly-built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
- 1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua, Mexico.
- 1825 – Malden Island is discovered by captain George Anson Byron.
- 1859 – First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
- 1863 – Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing to stop the harassment of emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
- 1865 – The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time.
- 1866 – New Orleans's Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.
- 1871 – The Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler explodes, killing over 85 people.
- 1916 – Black Tom Island explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey.
- 1930 – In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first Football World Cup.
- 1932 – Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short.
- 1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.
- 1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto.
- 1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, is officially opened.
- 1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.
- 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission – David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.
- 1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Japan killing 162.
- 1974 – Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the United States Supreme Court.
- 1974 – Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets are killed and fifty-four are injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp.
- 1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again, and will be declared legally dead on this date in 1982.
- 1975 – The Troubles: three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland (see Miami Showband killings).
- 1978 – The 730 (transport), Okinawa changes its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.
- 1980 – Vanuatu gains independence.
- 1980 – Israel's Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law
- 1990 – George Steinbrenner is forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield.
- 1997 – The 1997 Thredbo landslide occurs, killing 18, but miraculously Stuart Diver survives 65 hours and is the lone survivor in the ordeal.
- 2002 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the Sarbanes–Oxley Act into effect.
- 2003 – In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.
- 2006 – The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
- 2006 – Lebanon War: At least 28 civilians, including 16 children are killed by the Israeli Air Force in what Lebanese call the Second Qana massacre and what Israel considers to be an attempt to stop rockets' being fired, from Lebanon, at Israeli civilian targets.
July 29
- 238 – The Praetorian Guard stormed the palace and capture Pupienus and Balbinus. They are dragged through the streets of Rome and executed. On the same day Gordian III, age 13, is proclaimed emperor.
- 615 – Pakal ascends the throne of Palenque at age 12.
- 904 – Sack of Thessalonica: Saracen raiders under Leo of Tripoli sack Thessalonica, the Byzantine Empire's second-largest city, after a short siege, and plunder it for a week.
- 1014 – Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars: Battle of Kleidion – Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, and his subsequent treatment of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of a heart attack less then three months later, on October 6.
- 1030 – Ladejarl-Fairhair succession wars: Battle of Stiklestad – King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes.
- 1565 – The widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany, at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- 1567 – James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
- 1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – English naval forces under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.
- 1693 – War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen – France wins a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.
- 1793 – John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.
- 1836 – Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
- 1847 – Cumberland School of Law is founded in Lebanon, Tennessee, United States, one of only 15 law schools to exist in the United States at the end of 1847.
- 1848 – Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – in Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police.
- 1851 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
- 1858 – United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C..
- 1899 – The First Hague Convention is signed.
- 1900 – In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci.
- 1907 – Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England. The camp runs from August 1 to August 9, 1907, and is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement.
- 1920 – Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.
- 1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.
- 1932 – Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans.
- 1937 – Tōngzhōu Incident: in Tōngzhōu (China), the East Hopei Army attacks Japanese troops and civilians.
- 1945 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.
- 1948 – Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad – after a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London.
- 1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
- 1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
- 1959 – First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.
- 1965 – Vietnam War: the first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.
- 1967 – Vietnam War: off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134.
- 1967 – During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead.
- 1976 – In New York City, David Berkowitz (aka the "Son of Sam") kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks.
- 1981 – A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
- 1987 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Eurotunnel).
- 1987 – Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayawardene sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on ethnic issues.
- 1988 – The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities.
- 1993 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquits alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
- 1996 – The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad .
- 2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.
July 28
- 1364 – Troops of the Republic of Pisa and of the Republic of Florence clash in the Battle of Cascina.
- 1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
- 1794 – Maximilien Robespierre is executed by guillotine in Paris during the French Revolution.
- 1809 – Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera – Sir Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force led by Joseph Bonaparte.
- 1821 – José de San Martín declares the independence of Peru from Spain.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church – Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1868 – The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is certified, establishing African-American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
- 1896 – The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
- 1914 – World War I: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after Serbia rejects the conditions of an ultimatum sent by Austria on July 23 following the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
- 1932 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
- 1933 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Spain are established.
- 1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
- 1942 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so are to be immediately executed.
- 1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah – The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
- 1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
- 1948 – The Metropolitan Police Flying Squad foils a bullion robbery in the "Battle of London Airport".
- 1955 – The Union Mundial pro Interlingua is founded at the first Interlingua congress in Tours, France.
- 1957 – Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyūshū, Japan, kill 992.
- 1965 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
- 1973 – Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: 600,000 people attend a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
- 1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattens Tangshan in the People's Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
- 1993 – Andorra joins the United Nations.
- 1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.
- 2001 – Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championships.
- 2002 – Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
- 2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
- 2005 – Tornadoes touch down in a residential areas in south Birmingham and Coventry England, causing £4,000,000 worth of damages and injuring 39 people.
- 2008 – The historic Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare burns down for the second time in 80 years.
- 2010 – Airblue Flight 202 crashes into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people aboard. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Pakistan history and the first involving an Airbus A321.
July 27
- 1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria invades Scotland and defeats Macbeth, King of Scotland somewhere north of the Firth of Forth.
- 1214 – Battle of Bouvines: in France, Philip II of France defeats John of England.
- 1302 – Battle of Bapheus: decisive Ottoman victory over the Byzantines opening up Bithynia for Turkish conquest.
- 1549 – The Jesuit priest Francis Xavier's ship reaches Japan.
- 1663 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.
- 1689 – Glorious Revolution: the Battle of Killiecrankie ends.
- 1694 – A Royal Charter is granted to the Bank of England.
- 1720 – The Battle of Grengam marks the second important victory of the Russian Navy.
- 1778 – American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant – British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
- 1789 – The first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, is established (it will be later renamed Department of State).
- 1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the Revolution".
- 1862 – Sailing from San Francisco to Panama City, the SS Golden Gate catches fire and sinks off Manzanillo, Mexico, killing 231.
- 1866 – The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable is successfully completed, stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Newfoundland.
- 1880 – Second Anglo-Afghan War: Battle of Maiwand – Afghan forces led by Ayub Khan defeat the British Army in battle near Maiwand, Afghanistan.
- 1900 – Kaiser Wilhelm II makes a speech comparing Germans to Huns; for years afterwards, "Hun" would be a disparaging name for Germans.
- 1914 – Felix Manalo registers the Iglesia ni Cristo with the Philippine government.
- 1917 – The Allies reach the Yser Canal at the Battle of Passchendaele.
- 1919 – The Chicago Race Riot erupts after a racial incident occurred on a South Side beach, leading to 38 fatalities and 537 injuries over a five-day period.
- 1921 – Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting prove that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar.
- 1928 – Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before the end of July.
- 1929 – The Geneva Convention of 1929, dealing with treatment of prisoners-of-war, is signed by 53 nations.
- 1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny.
- 1941 – Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.
- 1942 – World War II: Allied forces successfully halt the final Axis advance into Egypt.
- 1949 – Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner.
- 1953 – The Korean War ends when the United States, the People's Republic of China, and North Korea sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.
- 1955 – The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends.
- 1964 – Vietnam War: 5,000 more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
- 1974 – Watergate Scandal: the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon.
- 1976 – Former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka is arrested on suspicion of violating foreign exchange and foreign trade laws in connection with the Lockheed bribery scandals.
- 1981 – British television: on Coronation Street, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton, which proves to be a national event scoring massive viewer numbers for the show.
- 1981 – 6 year old Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh is kidnapped in Hollywood, Florida and is found murdered two weeks later.
- 1983 – Black July: 18 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by Sinhalese prisoners, the second such massacre in two days.
- 1987 – RMS Titanic, Inc. begins the first expedited salvage of wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
- 1990 – The Supreme Soviet of the Belarusian Soviet Republic declares independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union. Until 1996 the day is celebrated as the Independence Day of Belarus; after a referendum held that year the celebration of independence is moved to June 3.
- 1990 – The Jamaat al Muslimeen attempt a coup d'état in Trinidad and Tobago, occupying the Trinidad and the studios of Trinidad and Tobago Television, holding Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson and most of his Cabinet as well as the staff at the television station hostage for 6 days.
- 1995 – The Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..
- 1996 – Centennial Olympic Park bombing: in Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics. One woman (Alice Hawthorne) is killed, and a cameraman suffers a heart attack fleeing the scene. 111 are injured.
- 1997 – About 50 people are killed in the Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria.
- 2002 – Ukraine airshow disaster: a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.
- 2005 – STS-114: NASA grounds the Space Shuttle, pending an investigation of the continuing problem with the shedding of foam insulation from the external fuel tank. During ascent, the external tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery sheds a piece of foam slightly smaller than the piece that caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; this foam does not strike the spacecraft.
- 2006 – The Federal Republic of Germany is deemed guilty in the loss of Bashkirian 2937 and DHL Flight 611, because it is illegal to outsource flight surveillance.
- 2007 – Phoenix News Helicopter Collision: news helicopters from Phoenix, Arizona television stations KNXV and KTVK collide over Steele Indian School Park in central Phoenix while covering a police chase;
July 26
- 657 – First Fitna: the Battle of Siffin see the troops led by Ali ibn Abi Talib and those led by Muawiyah I clashing.
- 811 – Battle of Pliska: Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I is killed and his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded.
- 920 – Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.
- 1309 – Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.
- 1469 – Wars of the Roses: the Battle of Edgecote Moor pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England takes place.
- 1581 – Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration): the northern Low Countries declare their independence from the Spanish king, Philip II.
- 1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England.
- 1758 – French and Indian War: the Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- 1775 – The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress.
- 1788 – New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.
- 1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London.
- 1822 – José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
- 1822 – First day of the three-day Battle of Dervenakia, between the Ottoman Empire force led by Mahmud Dramali Pasha and the Greek Revolutionary force led by Theodoros Kolokotronis.
- 1847 – Liberia declares independence.
- 1861 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Morgan's Raid ends – At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.
- 1878 – In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside.
- 1882 – Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth.
- 1882 – The Republic of Stellaland is founded in Southern Africa.
- 1887 – Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement.
- 1890 – In Buenos Aires the Revolución del Parque takes place, forcing President Juárez Celman's resignation.
- 1891 – France annexes Tahiti.
- 1908 – United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
- 1914 – Serbia and Bulgaria interrupt diplomatic relationship.
- 1936 – The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1936 – King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the throne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
- 1937 – End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1941 – World War II: in response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
- 1944 – World War II: the Soviet army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation.
- 1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.
- 1945 – The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
- 1945 – The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.
- 1945 – The US Navy cruiser USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with parts of the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
- 1946 – Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport
- 1947 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
- 1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.
- 1951 – Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, United Kingdom.
- 1952 – King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favor of his son Fuad.
- 1953 – Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement took the name of the date: 26th of July Movement[1]
- 1953 – Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which becomes known as the Short Creek Raid.
- 1956 – Following the World Bank's refusal to fund building the Aswan High Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
- 1957 – Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated.
- 1958 – Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.
- 1963 – Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.
- 1963 – An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (now in the Republic of Macedonia) leaves 1,100 dead.
- 1963 – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.
- 1965 – Full independence is granted to the Maldives.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình Dzũ is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
- 1971 – Apollo Program: launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.
- 1974 – Greek Prime Minister Constantinos Karamanlis forms the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule.
- 1977 – The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
- 1989 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
- 1990 – The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush.
- 2005 – Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission – Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
- 2005 – Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days.
- 2007 – Shambo, a black cow in Wales that had been adopted by the local Hindu community, is slaughtered due to a bovine tuberculosis infection, causing widespread controversy.
- 2008 – 56 people are killed and over 200 people are injured in 21 bomb blasts in Ahmedabad bombing in India.
